


ignite the night

by helsinkibaby



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Het, Order of the Phoenix missing scene, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 14:44:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3071975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fireworks are going off outside Gryffindor common room. Some are going off inside.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ignite the night

**Author's Note:**

> A friend's post on Facebook led me to the Fred/Hermione tag on tumblr, which led me to the same tag here, and ultimately resulted in this.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Fred jumped at the familiar voice, wheeling around to face Hermione, who was staring at him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk on her face. "Shouldn't you?" he countered immediately, reasonably sure that she wasn't going to start telling him about lights out and rules being rules for a reason. "Or is this part of you feeling rebellious?"

Hermione's cheeks darkened slightly. "You heard that."

Fred snorted. "Ron told us," he informed her. "Told quite a few people as a matter of fact... Hermione Granger, not doing homework, not even reproaching his reprobate brothers for selling fireworks in the common room..."

The flush was still there on Hermione's face, only partially obscured when her hair fell across her cheeks as she dropped into one of the comfortable chairs near the fireplace. "You must be rubbing off on me," she said lightly and Fred responded without thinking. 

"If only."

Crimson flooded her cheeks and his own weren't too far behind. Clearing his throat he looked down at the papers in his hands, pages of orders for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes that would keep him and George busy for weeks, that would stop him thinking of a certain fifth year that he really shouldn't be thinking about. 

Her quiet words drew him back to reality. "It really is extradordinary magic you're doing."

The notion that he'd impressed her, the cleverest witch in Hogwarts, made him preen inwardly. The fact that she hadn't hexed him into oblivion, hadn't run back upstairs to her dorm, made him look up, meet her eyes. He returned her small smile with one of his own. "Yeah, well... The world needs a few laughs, doesn't it... especially now."

"Yes." Hermione, always serious, was more serious than usual, and much to his surprise, Fred found he didn't like the sight at all. "Yes, we do."

"They're still going you know." He tilted his head towards the windows and enjoyed her eyes going wide, her smile following suit. 

"You mean you didn't set more off?" Her voice was full of disbelief as she scrambled from the chair, heading for the nearest window. Leaning her hands on the mantelpiece, she stared out, a laugh bubbling up as she saw the night sky lit up with fireworks. "I thought you'd set more off."

She turned to him then and he saw her blink in surprise as she realised just how close to her he was. "No," was all he said and her response was another of those small laughs that he suddenly thought he would never get tired of hearing. 

"Extraordinary," she breathed and he shrugged, looked down. 

"Yeah, well, I'm an extraordinary bloke," he quipped. 

He expected her to roll her eyes. Instead, she touched his cheek. 

"So I see."

He should say something, say anything, Fred knew that. Turned out that for the first time in his life, he was speechless. 

He knew though, what he shouldn't do. 

He absolutely should not lean forward and kiss her, and he didn't. 

She leaned forward and kissed him instead. 

Just at that exact moment there was an even brighter explosion as a rocket exploded with a Catherine wheel and he could dimly hear a roar of appreciative applause from the Gryffindor dorms. Hermione must have heard it too because she drew back, a teasing smile making her lips twitch. "Is that for us?" she asked and he grinned back. 

"Let's try again and see."

This time, there were no literal fireworks or cheers, but there were fireworks of an altogether different sort. 

Fred liked those better. 


End file.
